S. AMERICAN SUMMIT DEBATES ANTI-DRUG POLICY

Leaders Fear Action From U.S. Military

BRASILIA, Brazil -- South American leaders yesterday opened their first
regional summit amid concerns of a possible spillover from Colombia's
anti-drug offensive and of U.S. military involvement in the fight.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana quickly reassured the 11 other leaders
that his anti-drug campaign -- known as Plan Colombia -- will not lead to
American military intervention.

"I am the President of Colombia. There will not be a military
intervention," he said. "The world should understand that drug trafficking
is the common enemy."

The two-day summit was convened by Brazilian President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso to discuss integrating the region's economies, strengthening its
democratic institutions and improving education and technology.

But the consequences of Colombia's drug war was becoming a major focus of
the meeting, which got under way one day after President Clinton visited
Colombia to lend support and release $1.3 billion in military aid to the
counternarcotics program.

The U.S. military hardware and training are aimed at combating armed groups
that protect plantations producing most of the world's cocaine.

"We will fully support the plan provided its main goal is a negotiated
peace settlement," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told reporters. "What
worries us is the plan's strong military-oriented focus."

He said Venezuela has reinforced its border with Colombia and planned to
provide humanitarian assistance to refugees. He added that in a single day
last year, 22,000 Colombian refugees crossed the Venezuelan border fleeing
violence.

Colombia shares a 1,400-mile border with Venezuela and a 960-mile border
with Brazil.

Chavez said he feared that Colombia's anti-narcotics efforts "could lead us
to a Vietnamization of the whole Amazon region."

Drug trafficking, he said, must "not be fought with military actions, but
with intelligence services and the cooperation of all countries affected."

For its part, Brazil worries that drug traffickers and guerrillas fleeing
the Colombian offensive could cross into its territory and has placed army
and police troops in the region on alert.

Brazil has made it clear that while it supports Plan Colombia it opposes
any active military involvement.

Summit leaders also are taking first steps to create a South American trade
bloc. They want to integrate the continent's economies through a network of
highways, bridges and river routes as well as telecommunications.

A continent-wide trade bloc would give the region greater bargaining power
in the negotiations leading up to the creation of the U.S.-sponsored Free
Trade Area of the Americas, a hemisphere-wide free trade zone, scheduled to
be in place by 2005.

While the United States wants a free trade area by 2005, Brazil wants to go
more slowly to give regional trade blocs enough time to solidify and merge
into a South American-wide bloc capable of competing on a hemispheric scale.